Baling-press.



PATENTED APR. 11, 1905;,

W A H S D A R S W BALING PRESS.

APPLICATION FILED APR.18, 1904.

WITNESSES, I

Patented April 11, 1905.

PATENT OFFICE.

WILLIAM S. BRADSHAW, OF SAN JOSE, CALIFORNIA.

BALING-PRESS.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 786,948, dated April 11, 1905.

Application filed April 18, 1904. Serial No, 203,655.

To all whom it may concern;

Be it known that I, WILLIAM S. BRADSHAW, a citizen of the United States, residing at San Jose, in the county of Santa Clara and State of California, have invented new and useful Improvements in Baling-Presses, of which the following is a specification.

My invention relates to improvements in baling-presses or hay-presses of the vertical type, and pertains particularly to means for automatically operating the door of the pressbox. Its object is to provide a novel, simple, safe, positive, and practical means for opening and closing the door.

It consists of the parts and combination of parts, as hereinafter more fully described and claimed, having reference to the accompanying drawings, in which Figure 1 is a side elevation showing door closed. Fig. 2 isa part plan view of same. Fig. 3 is a side elevation opposite to Fig. 1, showing door open. Fig. 4 is a plan view, partly in section, through chain-pulley and shaft-bearing.

The parts of the machine that are essentially old are shown in dotted lines.

A represents a press-box of well-known construction; 2, a follower movable therein by any suitable means not necessary here to show; 3, the door or shutter hinged at the lower edge and movable between the usual guides at, and 5 the sweep of the ordinary horse-power.

Secured to the sides of the press and'the guides 4 are brackets or supports 6 for the journals of the rock-shaft 7.

8 represents toggles, each with one member fixed to shaft 7 and with the other suitably pivoted to the door near its top edge. By an oscillation of shaft 7 in one direction the toggles act to close the door. An oscillation in the opposite direction opens the door. The means by which these successive operations are performed constitute the essential features of my invention.

One end of shaft 7 carries adrum or grooved pulley 9 and the other a similar drum or pulley 10. For purposes of economy in construction and ease of assembling the parts I prefer to make shaft 7 polygonal in cross-section and to cast each drum with an integral hub portion 11, adapted to fit over the shaft and provided with suitable locking means or keys, whereby the drums may be fixed rigidly on the shafts and all made to turn in unison. The hub parts 11 serve as bearings and save the necessity of turning down the shaft or providing separate bearing-sleeves. A chain or like flexible connection 12 is fixed to drum 9 and passes over the top thereof. The other end of the chain connects to a radius-rod 13, pivoted to the press-box. This same chain or a continuation 14: thereof leads from the rod 13 back around a pulley 15 and connects with a lever 16, disposed in the path of a projection 17 on sweep 5. This lever is preferably formedwitha bifurcated bracket portion 18, which enables it to be substantially supported on the horsepower frame. In the rotation of the sweep the lever is engaged to exert a tension on the chain and rotate pulley 9 to close the door.

Heretofore more or less danger has attended the closing of press-doors by reason of their too sudden action, and often the men occupied in feeding the press-box where not given timely warning were caught in the door and severely injured. I place my operatinglever 16 back of the point of farthest outward travel of the sweep on that side of the machine, so that the period of contactof the stop on the sweep and the lever will be considerably prolonged and the closing of the door will be rendered more gradual.

The radius-rod 13 acts in lieu of a directionpulley, is simple, occupies little room, and allows for a slackening up to some extent of the downward pull on pulley9 as the door closes.

As the door is closed the toggles are thrown a bit beyond center to carry their members slightly out of line and are supported against the stops or knee-brackets 19 to hold the door tight shut while the follower is reciprocated to compress the charge. The opening of the door is effected by means of a chain or like flexible connection 20, fastened at one end to drum or pulley 1'0 and passed around beneath the latter and attached to the follower. The chain 20 is ordinarily slack enough to allow the door freely to open and close at all times, except when the follower is lifted above the door-opening. When the door closes, the chain 20 will be drawn taut just as the follower passes the top edge of the door. The further uplift of the follower to complete the compression of the charge acts to rotate the drum 10 and open the door, the diameter of the drum being sufiicient to unwrap enough chain to allow the follower to move to its full limit upward. Thus a movement of the sweep acting through pulley 9 closes the door, and the upward movement of the follower acting directly through pulley 10 opens it.

I may interpose a stiff coil-spring 21 in the connections between pulleys 9 and 15, which will be suflieiently strong to close the door under ordinary circumstances; but should the horses start when the hay was only half-way in or should a fork-handle be caught in the door, either of which happenings would break the door, the spring would give enough to render the door non-breakable and less dangerous. The next revolution of the sweep would close the door.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is-

1. In a baling-press, the combination of the press-box, a follower therein, a door for said press-box, door-closing means including a rock-shaft and toggles, and a connection from one side of the shaft for rocking the shaft in one direction, and door-opening means including the aforesaid shaft and toggles, and a flexible connection from the opposite side of the shaft to the follower for rocking the shaft in an opposite direction.

2. In a baling-press, the combination of a press-box, a follower therein, a door for the press-box, brackets extending from the pressbox, a transverse shaft journaled in said brackets, toggles between the shaft and the door, pulleys on opposite portions of the shaft, a flexible connection attached to one of said pulleys and passing over the same for rocking the shaft in one direction, a flexible connection attached to the other pulley and passing under the same, for rocking the shaft in an opposite direction, and means for actuating the connection.

3. In a bali-ng-press, the combination of a press-box, a follower therein, a door for said press-box, door-closing means, and means for opening the door, said opening means includ ing a rock-shaft, toggles having one member fixed to said shaft and the other pivoted to the door, a fast pulley on the shaft and direct flexible connections between the pulley and follower, and knee-brackets 19 on the door to limit the inward movement of said toggles.

4:. In a baling-press, the combination of a press-box, a follower therein, a door for said box, a sweep, devices in the path of the sweep and operable thereby, a rock-shaft, toggles having one member fixed to the shaft and the other pivoted to the door, fast pulleys on said shaft, door-closing means including flexible connections between one of said pulleys and the said devices operatable by the sweep, said door-opening means including flexible direct connections between the other of said pulleys and the follower.

5. In a baling-press, the combination of a press-box, a follower therein, a door for said box, a sweep, devices operable thereby, a rock shaft, toggles having one member fixed to the shaft and the other pivoted to the door, fast pulleys on said shaft, door-closing means including flexible connections between one of said pulleys and the devices operatable by the sweep, door-opening means including flexible direct connections between the other of said pulleys and the follower, said pulleys having integral sleeve portions fitting said shaft and serving as journals therefor substantially as described.

6. In a baling-press, the combination of a press-box, a follower therein, a door for said box, a sweep, a rock-shaft, toggles having one member fixed to the shaft and the other pivoted to the door, door-closing means, door-opening means, said door-closing and door-opening means each including a pulley fast on said shaft, a pulley disposed adjacent to the sweep, a lever operatable by said sweep, flexible connections between the lever and said fast pulley, and an expansion-spring interposed in said connections.

7. In a baling-press, the combination of a press-box, a follower therein, a door for said box, a sweep, a rock-shaft, toggles having one member fixed to the shaft and the other pivoted to the door, fast pulleys on said shaft, door-closing means including flexible connections between one of said pulleys and devices operatable by the sweep, door-opening means including flexible direct connections between the other of said pulleys and the follower, and an expansion-spring interposed in said doorclosing flexible connections for the purpose specified.

In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand in presence of two subscribing witnesses.

\VILLIAM S. BRADSHA\V.

lVitnesses:

H. V. GREENE, H. T. KELLEY. 

